Telecommunications services

Tender description

Kingston upon Hull City Council (‘he Authority’) wishes to select a suitably qualified and experienced Tenderer (the concessionaire) to design, deploy and operate Wi-Fi and wholesale small-cellular communications services in exchange for the right to utilise the Authority's street furniture and property assets in the proposed coverage area. The tenderer will select some of the available street furniture and other property assets to attach networking equipment capable of delivering Wi-Fi and wholesale cellular services. Although the coverage of the network will be driven by the concessionaire, there are key areas which, if covered, would provide reputational, economic and social benefit to the City. These include the City centre (Public Realm, Old Town and Waterfront), key City of Culture locations and high footfall areas that will drive digital inclusion. The Authority is conducting the procurement using a process analogous to the competitive dialogue procedure set out in European legislation. The mandatory requirements are: — To provide citizens, visitors and businesses access to free Wi-Fi service and potentially local content and information. This should be implemented through the deployment of Wi-Fi/WLAN technology in compliance with IEEE Wireless LAN Protocol 802.11n and 802.11ac standards as a minimum; — Users in the City should have access to an Authority/partner-branded landing page with links to: Public services; Internet; Commercial partners; and Community messaging. Note that this may include promotion of City of Culture 2017 that may carry branding of City of Culture and its sponsors; — The deployment of small cell infrastructure into the city centre, key business centres and strategic regeneration areas. This world class wholesale network should drive service provision and the deployment of next generation mobile services.